Tick Tock Heart
by Lt.Gungirl
Summary: Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart Fanfic. Jack and Acacia's kiss nearly kills Jack, but who should appear to the save the day? Melies himself. Surviving his adventure in love Jack strives to start anew, but Acacia fears hurting him. Will they make it work or will fear pull them apart yet again?
1. Author's note

**Author's note: This fanfic is based on the French Film ****_Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart_****. I hope you find this venture satisfactory. I hope that Jack is portrayed properly. I might use aspects from the book. Chapter one should be up soon. Hope to see you all along on this journey!**


	2. The Kiss that Could Kill

When my lips merge with Acacia's I can feel it. Every gear in my chest speeds up and they grow hot and grind against each other. The pain is unbearable. My cuckoo chimes several times in quick succession sticking out of it's little door. Acacia's lips taste like the sweetest of fruits and before I know what's happening I'm ten years old again being infected by her very touch. Ecstasy and joy fill me up. Her touch is like electricity coursing through me. She's in my heart touching each gear and cog. And as she touches them they stop working. One by one I can feel the mechanisms of my heart faltering. There's heat in my chest and the little clock stuck into me is smoking because I can smell it. With the snow and the scent of Acacia's tears it makes for a rather memorable perfume that the cold wind picks up and carries away.

I feel perfectly at ease. Pain blooms in my chest but so does an uncontainable joy. I am at peace as I feel myself slipping into darkness. Acacia's soft lips will stick in my memory forever, she's still crying and her lips shudder under mine. She's just as aware as I am that my hour has come. And neither of us wants to pull away and break the embrace we've been waiting for. There was no way we could be happy without this moment. Even if meant I lived to old age, it wouldn't have been anything without Acacia. She knows now that she couldn't have left me for long. If I'm dead she'll move on, maybe Joe will be good for her. Maybe she'll find someone else who can give her a proper heart.

I'm so cold I don't think I could move if I wanted to. I think of a thousand things i want to say to her unable to even speak. And then the hour and minute hands slow to a standstill. It's like time has stopped for good and I can feel Acacia pull away to see my eyes close for good. I try to smile through the pain, to let her know I'm dying a happy man.

I slump back against the cross shaped headstone and shudder in what I know is my final breath. I can hear Madeleine's scolding voice. "I warned you about what love would do to your heart. It's not made to withstand such powerful emotions." Her familiar voice soothes even if she's furious. She is after all, the only mother I've ever known and she always knew how to take care of me. I want to feel her arms around me once more.

Acacia is calling my name in a soft whisper. I can hear her choking on a sob as she tries to accept that I am dying.

I can hear her singing now, the lullaby she sang when I was little. But I can't hear the words, because the sound of someone winding me up is awfully loud in my ears. I struggle to hear the lullaby but only the cranking of my key reaches my ears. Madeleine's gentle voice vanishes completely to be replaced by the sound of gears fighting to move properly. Something inside my chest snaps painfully as if a clogged mechanism has just forced itself clear. I jolt in response unable to fight the reaction.

New voices pound in my head. One is a soft nightingale and the other a masculine French accent mumbling in it's native tongue. I can feel someone shoving my cuckoo back into it's hole and the pressure is unbearable. I almost slip into darkness for good. When the door is closed the pain ebbs enough for me to open my eyes.

Acacia is crying in front of me. The image is watery and unfocused but I can see the tears running down her face. I wonder what her tears taste like. I've tasted Madeleine's and they were bitter but calming. I can hear Georges calling up to the house for help. He doesn't see me lean forward slowly, there's so much pain in my chest I can barely move.

I kiss Acacia's cheek collecting a few of her tears on my lips I taste them experimentally. The flavor is that of a sweet fruit that has seen joy but turned sour in losing that joy. I rather like them. Acacia opens her watery eyes and fixes her glasses to look at me properly. I smile at her like the idiot I am. "I'm alive," I murmur astonished, it's about all I can say as she stares at me trying to make sure I'm not a ghost or an hallucination.

She squeals something incoherent then jumps into me. Her soft chest crushes against my clock making the pain worse. But her arms are warm and she's crying into my shoulder. "Your heart stopped and I thought you were dead." She murmurs against my neck. Her lips feel good on my skin.

"I was nearly there." I reply soothingly. I wonder if I imagined hearing Madeleine.

"It was Mr. Melies. When you threw away your key it landed at his feet. He hurried up and wound your heart just seconds after it stopped."

Georges is looking at me in surprise. "Welcome back dear boy!" He exclaims.

Acacia lets go of me as I cough. My clock heart aches like never before. I wince and the two manage to help me back up the hill to the house. The door is open Anna coming out to greet us. She ushers us inside and everybody lifts me onto the table where Madeleine used to fix me up. Now it's Georges who is worrying about my substitute heart. "I'll need extra parts." He says looking at Anna and Luna. The two point to the wall of clocks. Everyone is watching my French friend wondering if he can possibly work miracles like good old Madeleine. Thinking about her makes my clock hurt. I feel guilty about her death and regret not getting to properly say goodbye. Or to tell her that I did love her. I hope that wherever she is she knows that.

He fetches a handful of them down and begins dismantling them with expert speed. I watch both in awe and a little horrified. Maybe I feel a kinship to clocks because my heart is one. My heart falters reminding me how badly damaged it is. And its all my fault. I really am a fool for trying to remove the clock Madeleine used to replace my frozen heart. In his haste Georges causes gears and springs to fly into the air. A large cuckoo pops out just missing his face as it chirps in his ear.

He's a madman sometimes when he's working on something. Especially if it's for someone else.

Luna adds wood to the fire and I finally feel how warm it is inside. In fact it's overly warm in the house because they're trying to thaw me out. Once again someone else is working hard to take care of me.

Acacia holds my hand her tears all dried up. She's still worried about me but I can tell she's going to give me an ear full when I'm all healed up. There's thorn vines around her and she looks so conflicted. I smile at her which ends up being more of a wince. "I'm sorry Miss Acacia." I whisper.

"You should be." She says gently. "Don't ever do that to me again." She orders sternly. I nod.

Georges turns from the dissected clocks to me and takes the dial off. He begins by pulling out a number of cracked or ground down gears and cogs. I can feel him testing each gear and spring and remove the ones that are no longer good. As he reaches in deeper he pulls some out that glisten with blood. It's a sickening sight, having your insides being pulled out right before your eyes. I wonder how many gears I've lost. And how much work it will take to get my heart back to working order.

I can't say I understand my clockwork heart. But I know that there is a lot more to it than a simple clock. Madeleine used the clock as the working mechanism but her handiwork goes deeper to implementing some sort of replacement to ensure my blood still pumps properly. People used to call her insane, but she was really brilliant.

"What kind of tubes are these?" Georges asks. "One's cracked and leaking blood into the clock."

It's Arthur who pulls out a jar of tiny copper tubes that has the answer. He hands it to the French inventor who flies into action. He works quickly and the pain this produces sends me into unconsciousness. I'm glad not to see the rest of the work. I always liked watching Madeleine work, but I don't want to see the devastation I've wrought upon myself. I wonder if Acacia watched or if she turned away when it got too bloody for her to take.

I dream of Madeleine gently tuning up my heart. She rarely causes pain when she touches it. I can feel her pressing down on gears and springs to make sure they work properly. Her delicate fingers slide through the wooden frame and deeper in feeling for any kind of fissure in the little copper tubes that work to pump my blood. Madeleine finds no problems and closes my dial. She locks it in place and sets the key down on the table next to her work station. "Jack, you need to be more careful." She says in her mothering voice. "I didn't design this for you so you could kill yourself by being reckless. I did it because I loved you the minute I saw you." She smiles at me and then fades into darkness. I want to say something to her but as usual my voice hitches in the back of my throat and the dream is gone.

I feel pain in my chest again and open my eyes slowly to see Georges hovering over me. He's locking my dial in place with a smile. "There!" He announces in relief. "Our little Jack is all fixed up."

Acacia kisses him on the cheek in gratitude and he smiles his moustache smiling with him. Arthur, Anna, and Luna clap for him. "Truly a magician." Anna says happily.

"Thank you." I say as I sit up just a bit. The pain is no longer unbearable, just an ache which means I'm healing up. I dare not admit how relieved I am to be alive. I almost killed myself and though I would have been satisfied to die in Acacia's arms, but I feel better about not putting her through that.

"I was merely looking out for a friend." He says bowing his head. I listen to the sound of my clock. The familiar sound of the mechanism working properly relaxes me. I hear the seconds tick by and then listen as the minute hand clicks over. It all feels normal and I'm grateful for that. How stupid I was to try and destroy it.

"I am so sorry that I put you all through that." I say. "I was being selfish. And I promise I won't do it again. Can you forgive me?"

Everyone assures me they've quite forgiven me and then they all slip up the stairs so that Acacia and I can talk privately.

For a few long moments we just sit in silence. We've been through so much in such a short time that we have to sort through the emotions or else we'll just go back to saying hurtful things. I realize rather belatedly that I have no shirt on and reach for it but I'm not recovered enough to be moving so much. "Please my shirt?" I ask and she obliges silently.

Her silence scares me. I'd rather have her yelling at me. I fear she won't stay. No longer half naked I look at her and open my mouth but she cuts me off.

"I'm sorry Jack. I didn't want to break your heart, but I didn't want to kill you either." She's starting to cry again and I take her hand in mine caressing it. "When Joe told me you were forbidden to love because of how dangerous it was I couldn't stand the thought of you dying in my arms. I told myself I would never do that to you. Joe pressured me into agreeing to go with him. I never should have agreed." She looks at me waiting to see my response.

"It's all forgiven." I say through a smile. "I should have told you everything, about my heart and about Joe. But I was so ashamed of what I did. I was so selfish back then, and now I've gone and ruined everything. Can you forgive me?" I ask. "For being such a fool and trying to keep my past from you?"

"Of course." She says smiling. "But why didn't you tell me about Joe?"

"I was so ashamed of what I had done I just wanted to forget about it. It really was an accident. He was trying to break my clock and I got angry. It just happened like a bad dream." I admit.

"Joe should have never done that. I'm sorry I doubted you Jack." I smile at her forgivingly. There's no reason we should be fighting.

"I'm sorry for being a jealous idiot and not realizing you were trying to do what was right." I say ashamed of my behavior. "Joe and I have never been friends, he never did like me and my clock heart just made it worse."

"I understand." Acacia says and I can tell that we've said enough.

I can sense she's still afraid of hurting me because the want to kiss me lights in her eyes but she stays still. "It's ok." I assure leaning forward. My clock feels better than ever.

Acacia slowly comes closer and we look into each other's eyes. They meet and we don't hide our love from each other. I grasp her cheek and pull her into a kiss. Our lips meet and I half-expect my heart to grind to a halt once more but instead my tick-tock begins to speed up and the gears just get louder. There's a bit of pain from my heart but it doesn't interrupt my emotions. Our lips turn brave and we really kiss. Her fingers brush my cheek and mine claw into her hair. She's even more delicious than before. My lips are strong against hers and she fights back. I feel light headed but its because I need to breath. We separate enough to suck in air and then keep it up

I wonder if her tongue is as good as her lips, it could even be better. But before I get brave enough to push that far, my cuckoo pops out chirping loudly but neither of us lets it stop us. When we hear Anna and Luna laughing to themselves we pull apart and look at the stairs.

Everyone is watching us from above grinning. I feel heat in my cheeks rise and my clock begins to slow. Acacia looks so embarrassed. She's so adorable I chuckle at her and she gives me a half-hearted glare. She smiles and we pull away not wanting to make a spectacle of ourselves. I've done that enough in recent weeks. For a while I want nothing more than to relax. I'm back home, even if Madeleine is gone this house is still my home and I can't bear the thought of leaving it just yet. Besides that everyone I care about is all together right now, my makeshift family, my friends, and the woman I love. I can't possibly ask for anything more right now.

Luna and Anna are suddenly interested in the kitchen. "Are you hungry?" They ask. Before I can answer Acacia does it for me.

"We should all eat." She says with a smile. I dare not argue with her. So the two women create a disastrous sounding chaos in a hurry to provide dinner for all of us. They argue a bit over spices or measurements, but they present an appetizing meal in the end. It's a nice stew with bread and it tastes good.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until I saw it in front of me. Then again I spent the last few weeks heartbroken and sick. The meal can't be any better as we fill it with conversation of the good memories. Stories about how Madeleine saved us, Georges tale of his film, and Acacia even tells a few stories about life in the Extraordinarium. We spend the evening laughing and sharing stories. There's a lightness that I feel hasn't been in the house since the day I left it. As I sit among food and fun I can almost see Madeleine sitting with us her tight lips twitching into a smile.

For the first time in weeks I feel at home and it eases my heart.


	3. I Promise It Won't Happen Again

The next morning I awake in my room to the sound of Arthur pounding his musical spine. "Melies must have fixed him up too." I murmur to myself. My heart clicks painfully and I reach for my key. I insert it into the lower hole in my dial and twist it several times. The ticking resumes it's usual rhythm and I get up to start the day. As I get dressed taking care not to hurt my clock of a heart I think about Acacia. She's here in my house staying in one of the patient rooms. Arthur, Anna, and Luna all have their own homes so it's just Georges and the two of us.

I can't wait to see her and I hurry down the stairs eager to speak with her. When I reach the landing Arthur greets me with a smile. "Morning Jack." He says in his thick accent.

"Good morning Arhtur." I reply walking past him my eyes searching for my beautiful singer. She seems to be still in bed so I take a seat at the already set table. Georges has prepared eggs and biscuits. He sets a full plate in front of me.

"How are you feeling my friend?" He asks.

"Great." I reply before taking a bite. "Is Acacia still in bed?" I ask.

"She's been up since dawn. I believe she left just before you came down for breakfast." His smile remains but his eyes darken.

"Did she say where she was going?" I ask suddenly worried. Part of me wants to get paranoid again but I fight it back when my clock's tick-tock misses a couple seconds.

"Only that she was taking a walk to think." Georges replies.

I know what she's thinking about. It isn't hard to figure out. I stand up and throw on my jacket. Arthur grabs my shoulder and stops me. I plan to yank myself from his grip but he offers me a proper coat. "Take it." He says with a gentle smile.

"Thank you." I say slipping my arms into the sleeves. If I could call anyone a father figure. It would be old Arthur. The man has always been here for me to offer words of advice and to give me an egg or to play a cheerful tune on his spine. I think I've always felt comfortable around him because like me he has an oddity about him. Madeleine's medicine was always uncommon. She found unusual ways to treat her patients. It wasn't bad just different. She was a brilliant doctor with all her prostheses and how she made them work.

Like my heart Arthur's spine is a household item. A xylophone to be exact. We share a commonality in our prostheses. He opens the door for me his spine making soft tinkling noises.

I hurry out into the cold. The sky is blue, yesterday's clouds have cleared away enough for the sun to warm the air up some. The snow crunches under my feet as I make my way down Arthur's Seat. I have no idea where to start looking for Acacia but I focus on making it down the hill first.

The city is quiet as I reach its edge. A few people who have jobs to do are trudging down the streets with carts or loads on their backs. There's a subdued sense of calm in the air. No one familiar comes into view as I walk towards the center of the town.

I remember my first time coming through these streets and I can see a funny little pair running haphazardly down the streets. It's a mature woman and a little red headed boy. The boy is leading the woman around to see whatever catches his eyes. I can hear her calling to the little boy. "Slow down Jack!" Her gentle cry stirs up emotions in me and my clock ticks loudly. I almost turn expecting to see Madeleine hurrying after me but I know she's gone.

Suddenly I know where Acacia is at. The square by the fountain where me met. I hurry in the direction of it hoping to find her there. My tick-tock picks up speed as I almost break into a run but I slow down when I almost slip and fall on the ice. As I near the square I can hear the old barrel organ. The mechanical music is merely the echo of a distant memory like the image of Madeleine and my younger self.

I find the alley that leads to the square and take it quickly. I feel a little ridiculous in Arthur's oversize coat but at least it blocks the cold. I step out of the shadow of the alley and see her sitting on a bench her back to me. She isn't alone, an older woman sits beside her and the two are talking. I decide to get closer and sneak a few feet nearer stopping when I can hear their voices. I don't get to close to them, Acacia will hear my heart and know I'm there.

"I love him, but his heart isn't strong enough to handle love. When we kissed his heart just about stopped. Thankfully a friend was there to revive him." Acacia says using words that the woman can understand.

"Sounds like a hard thing to deal with." She begins "But, what you've told me so far about him suggests that maybe it isn't love itself he has a hard time handling. You said you just about broke his heart that night?"

"Yes." Acacia nods. "I told him to leave me alone to protect him." Just the mention of the words she spoke that night make me shudder as I stand there listening to her talk about me. I wonder just what she's told this stranger and I want to hear her opinion on the subject.

"He was fine while he wooed you? "

"Unless he was jealous, I noticed it was painful for him when I talked about loving who I thought was someone else."

"Perhaps those dreadful emotions are what puts his heart into a fever." The woman says after a moment. "He can love and receive love, but jealousy, rejection, injustice...those emotions are damaging because they not only attack the heart but the soul as well. Your first kiss was while he was recovering from this horrible event, maybe now that he's properly healing it won't be fatal."

I want to clap my hands and thank the woman for saying these things because a part of me has always felt that maybe if I'm careful I won't die because of love. I remember the pain of seeing her climb into the coach with Joe. It makes my legs feel weak. I remind myself that she cane back for me in the end and my strength returns. The cold air is biting at me but I'm not in danger of freezing. My heart is working as it should the tick-tock is normal and my gears don't make any more noise than they typically do.

Acacia mulls over these thoughts and her dark eyes brighten slowly. "How can I tell if love is fatal or if the negative emotions that can come with it are what weakens him?" She asks despwrately.

"By giving him the choice to find out. Kiss him again. If he starts to falter maybe you should leave him, or maybe he'll try to work something out. Don't turn your back on him though. It can be far more destructive to crush his heart than to put it into a spin. You decided what was better for you both and it ended up almost being worse than getting some amount of happiness. Never sell love out for comfort, it will make for a life of bitterness."

"I think that's a marvelous idea." I say closing the gap between the three of us. Both women turn to look at me in surprise. Acacia stares at me in shock and shame.

"You must be this lovely lady's Jack." She says smiling warmly at me. I nod smiling back "Then come and sit here." She stands up. "I hope you two work it out. I think you both deserve happiness."

"Thank you." Acacia says as the woman walks away from us. She heads for an alley vanishing from our lives.

I sit down next to Acacia and look at her wondering if she should start first. "How did you find me?"

"I often came here to think about you. It wasn't hard to figure out." I answer simply. We have history here, and it brings us back to that day when I was ten years old.

"I was so conflicted, I love you but at the same time I don't want you to die." She admits.

"Hearing you didn't want to see me again was far more painful than when we almost kissed." I tell her. The tears begin to we'll up in her eyes.

"I felt awful and I hate that I put you through that. I'm afraid to let myself love you. I won't forgive myself if you die." She says miserably.

"I wont." I promise. She doesn't seem convinced. "Kiss me and I'll prove it."

"If it hurts or you feel like your heart is stopping you tell me." Acacia is so wary of her own feelings for me now that it hurts to hear the demanding edge in her voice.

"It always hurts." I admit. "But I promise to let you know if I think I'm dying." I say gently. She nods and allows me to lean in closer. She does so too.

Neither of us holds back this time. Our lips attack each other with passion I've only ever dreamed of. My clock aches at the sudden rise of physical and emotional desire. My tick-tock becomes ticktock and then a hum. I feel my gears spinning faster and faster. Heat rises with my blood pressure. Acacia and I hold onto each other tightly. Hands groping as amateurs in love. She places her hand on the back of my neck tightly.

I find the small of her back and anchor my hand there. My other hand caresses her face and neck without fear. Now that my clock is no longer damaged to begin with I don't feel the gears grind to a halt. In fact they've only sped up some. The heat isn't intense so I don't worry too much.

Acacia suddenly stops her passionate attack. I realize that she needs to breath and so do I come to think of it. My lungs are actually giving me more pain than my hearts so when we reluctantly pull away to take deep breaths of air I cough a little.

"Are you feeling alright?" She asks me when she's got her breath back. It doesn't take her long to recover, being a singer her lungs are trained for this sort of thing.

"Never better, " I say with a smile. "Just out of breath."

"What about your clock?" She asks.

I open Arthur's coat and we look to the cuckoo clock sticking out of my chest. To my relief the clock isn't smoking just moving fast and the hands are already slowing down. The hum is back to a quick ticktock that's slowly returning to a rhythmic tick-tock. We share a smile.

Acacia shivers in her coat and I take mine off and offer it to her. She shakes her head through a shiver and I place it over her shoulders. "I'm fine." I assure offering her my hand. "We should get back to the house." I suggest. She nods buttoning the coat up around her.

"I forget how cold the winter is here." She says in a whisper. She slips her hand into mine as we start to walk away from the fountain.

I pause and turn to look at it for a brief moment. Another vision fills my eyes, this one of two children singing together by a barrel organ. They haven't an idea what love is, but they're serenading each other with words that would make adults blush. The boy struggles to keep his heart cool while she sings about stars and glasses. I can't ignore the memories. Acacia looks at me questiongly.

"I remember a pair of crazy kids who sang here once." I say resuming our walk back to Arthur's Seat. Acacia smiles her cheeks a little pink.

"I remember something about confetti." She says giggling. I feel the heat rise in my cheeks as I look away. I cough a little, I don't want to think about the words I so foolishly sang as a child.

"That was a long time ago." I say dodging the subject.

We walk back out of the city and up the hill. The snow is cold but not freezing. Silently we make the climb and enter the house. Georges ushers us to the table where her food is already waiting. Knowing him he probably watched out the window until he saw us coking up and the heated up the food waiting for us.

We eat slowly, Georges is a decent cook. It isn't Madeleine's cooking, but it tastes good. I eat as much as I can. As we're about finished Anna and Luna enter the house.

"We just came by to deliver this." Anna offers me a sealed envelope. There's a familiar circle of Grey wax with a stylized M pressed into it. On the opposite side in Madeleine' s beautiful script is my name.

"The constables found it in her desk, they gave it to us after she passed." Luna says.

I stare at the envelope for moment wondering what it could be. The idea that it's her final words to me makes my gears slow a little. Acacia puts her hand on my shoulder. Her touch comforts me as I steel my nerves to open her final words to me.

I carefully pull the seal from the thick paper not wanting to ruin it. There's several sheets of paper inside with lines of delicate flowing script written in indigo ink. I run my fingers over the written words and smile slightly.

"I'll give you a few minutes." Acacia says. I nod and she turns and heads up the stairs. Anna and Luna have vanished. Melies is nowhere to be found.

I take a deep breath and begin to read.


End file.
